How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders By Catherine Seda

This is a review of How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders: Boosting Your Business & Buzz on the Web by Catherine Seda.

Catherine Seda followed her 2004 book “Search Engine Advertising” with another winner. Published in 2007, “How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders” offers marketers and business owners a great deal of non-technical information on how to make the most out of the online marketing options available and to give your online business and extra dose of energy.

This is not a technical book. The author calls it a tactical book for consultants, entrepreneurs, journalists, students and marketers. Aimed at people that want to take their online business into their own hands and get results fast. She says that results can be seen in 90 days, but also calls out early on that search engine optimization (SEO) is not a science. If anyone promises you top Google results you should run away. Fast.

This is a book that is easy to read for the beginner because of the decision to leave out the truly technical details. This book is also good for the experienced internet marketer that handles their own SEO. At least once in each chapter the experienced internet marketer will find a reminder of something forgotten. Points are emphasized in sections called insider insights, where 3 questions are answered by one of the authors clients.

The book gives a clear big picture overview of search engine marketing (SEM), SEO and tell you the difference between the two. In each chapter there is a 2 page success story with the challenges, strategy and results of one of her clients journey into SEO and SEM. These are very interesting because the mistakes that others made will not have to be made again.

The chapter on blogging clearly states some of the points that every client should know. For example, anyone can run a blog but not everyone should. There is a science of getting your blog seen when millions of blogs are already out there.

There are step-by-step instructions on how to build links to your site and explains the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ online marketing. The good SEO is called white hat, the bad is black hat. Some of the challenges are given special attention in Social media networking is a hot subject now, and Ms. Seda covers how to use it best. There is a strong connection between the social media’s we know, press coverage and online shopping communities.

Some people may find it hard to make an instant connection between the three, but online press releases are almost a type of social media, where you publish and hope that the publication is picked up by many users. Online shopping communities can be used as social media. She gives the example of a man that decided to sell his the ex-wife’s wedding dress. When she left, the dress was left in the attic. The owner posted a 500 word description, plus pictures of himself in the dress. The result was 17 million hits on the site, plus he was featured on major television shows. Imagine selling something a little different, and getting 17 million hits to your sales web site!

Resources

Testimonials

"Cindy is a real authority on all things international marketing. She is who I turn to when I have questions and you should too."

—Chris Garrett, co-author, Problogger

"Cindy has been a wonderful adviser to us @ www.bloggertone.com. She knows the social media landscape inside out & helped us to create & manage the Sugartone blogging competition which was a huge sucess. I would strongly recommend you to talk to this lady if you need help with your international social media, she’s top class."

—Niall Devitt

"Cindy is a terrific writer and has both a studied — and an intuitive — understanding of the best practices of no-hype, high results copywriting."

—Steve Slaunwhite, Author, The Everything Guide To Writing Copy

"You are a very important networking pioneer in the virtual world and demonstrate leadership with your relationship channel innovations."

—Martin Koppenborg

"Cindy is The Dean of International Business on Twitter."

—@LouisColumbus

"Amazing connector of cross cultural intercultural international people and practitioners."

—@cultureguru

International Stories!

Sign up for the free weekly newsletter for international professionals!

Social Media

Testimonials

"Cindy is a real authority on all things international marketing. She is who I turn to when I have questions and you should too."

—Chris Garrett, co-author, Problogger

"Cindy has been a wonderful adviser to us @ www.bloggertone.com. She knows the social media landscape inside out & helped us to create & manage the Sugartone blogging competition which was a huge sucess. I would strongly recommend you to talk to this lady if you need help with your international social media, she’s top class."

—Niall Devitt

"Cindy is a terrific writer and has both a studied — and an intuitive — understanding of the best practices of no-hype, high results copywriting."

—Steve Slaunwhite, Author, The Everything Guide To Writing Copy

"You are a very important networking pioneer in the virtual world and demonstrate leadership with your relationship channel innovations."

—Martin Koppenborg

"Cindy is The Dean of International Business on Twitter."

—@LouisColumbus

"Amazing connector of cross cultural intercultural international people and practitioners."

—@cultureguru

International Stories!

Sign up for the free weekly newsletter for international professionals!